Moodle@Warwick

Module Outline

Mannerism defines a key historical period in European arts, bridging the Renaissance and Baroque periods, which is characterised by a shift towards an increasingly more artful, idiosyncratic approach to artistic invention and practice. The term itself, however, is controversial, as it was forged by modern critics on the basis of the Italian sixteenth-century expression maniera (‘manner’, ‘style’). The broad aim of this module is to bring to the fore a number of critical issues raised by the many-sided notion of Mannerism, provide an in-depth examination of a large body of artists and artworks (drawings, paintings, sculptures and architecture) associated with it. The module is based on student-centred seminars, and structured in such a way that students will be invited to reflect on how their understanding of the concept of Mannerism changes throughout. It focuses on how theorists and artists developed new ways of conceiving of artistic practice, by placing unprecedented emphasis on the individual’s inventiveness and talent, and taking the ideal of beauty well beyond the rules of classical art that had prevailed in the High Renaissance. The analysis of theoretical principles elaborated by Italian treatise writers such as Vasari and Lomazzo is combined with an extensive survey of artistic practices and stylistic features that spread from Italy across Europe in the sixteenth century.

Sample Syllabus

Module Format

This module consists of both lectures and seminars. Seminars are student-centred; you should be prepared to contribute to the discussion in order to reap the benefits. Seminars may vary in format, and will entail a variety of in-class group activities including occasional group presentations.

Module Aims

By the end of the module you should be able to understand and compare/contrast:

• Demonstrate critical understanding of how Mannerism impacted on the development of Western art and how it has been discussed in modern scholarship.
• Learn how to deal critically with periodisation, stylistic categories and complex theoretical concepts.
• Demonstrate a grasp of the main lines of Mannerism-related artworks and the notion of Mannerism in contemporary art theory
• Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the works studied and their contexts
• Deploy these ideas critically in relation to other forms of art

Moreover, you should be able to:

• Make use of primary sources to contextualise the material;
• Improve your analytical skills and incorporate visual analysis in your work;
• Frame artists and artworks in their historical contexts and situate them in a broader art historical discourse;
• Deal with theoretical issues and historiographical concepts related to the Renaissance.

Workload

2 x 2-hour lecture/seminar per week

1 x Field trip

You should carry our a minimum of 7 hours preparatory reading and independent research per week

Assessment

3,500 word Portfolio including both documentary evidence and reflective writing (50%)

Slide test Assignment (20%)

1,500 word Essay (30%)

Introductory Reading

Essential

Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects (ed. 1568), translated by Conaway, J., and Bondanella, P. (Oxford, 1991), ‘Preface’ to Part 3. [http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2952624~S1]

Robert Williams, ‘Italian Renaissance Art and the Systemacity of Representation’, in Elkins, J, and Williams, R., Renaissance Theory (New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 159-184 [http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2344574~S1]

Michael Levey, High Renaissance (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975), esp. Ch. 1, pp. 15-63.

Walter Friedlaender, Mannerism and Anti-mannerism in Italian Painting (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).

John Shearman, Mannerism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967).

Philip Sohm, Style in the Theory of Early Modern Italy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 86-114Chapter 4, 'Giorgio Vasari: Aestheticizing and Historicizing Style'.

Robert Williams, Art, Theory, and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy: From Techne to Metatechne (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 29-72 (ch. 1, ‘Vasari's Concept of Disegno’), and pp. 73-122 (Ch. 2, ‘Style, Decorum and the Viewer’s Experience’)

Further

The concept of Mannerism in modern scholarship

Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1600 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).

Arnold Hauser, Mannerism: The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origin of Modern Art (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965).

Enrst H. Gombrich, ‘Mannerism: The Historiographic Background’, in Norm and Form: Studies in the Art of the Renaissance (London and New York: Phaidon, 1966), pp. 99-106.

Hessel Miedema, ‘On Mannerism and Maniera’, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 10 (1978–1979), No. 1, pp. 19-45.

Jeroen Stumpel, ‘Speaking of Manner’, Word and Image, Vol. 4 (1988), No. 1, pp. 246-264.

Introduction to more specific themes

Sydney J. Freedberg, Painting of the High Renaissance in Rome and Florence (New York: Hacker Art Books, 1985).

Linda Murray, The High Renaissance and Mannerism: Italy, the North, and Spain, 1500–1600 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977).

Wolfgang Lotz, Architecture in Italy, 1500-1600 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).

Marcia B. Hall, After Raphael: Painting in Central Italy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999)

Bastien Eclercy (ed.), Maniera: Pontormo, Bronzino and Medici Florence, exh. cat. (Munich, London, New York : Prestel, 2016).

Michael Cole, Cellini and the Principles of Sculpture (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

David Franklin, Painting in Renaissance Florence, 1500–1550 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001).

Henri Zerner, Renaissance Art in France: The Invention of Classicism (Paris: Flammarion, 2004).

Thomas Da Costa Kaufmann, The School of Prague: Painting at the Court of Rudolf II (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1988).

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 Moodle.

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Today we are used to thinking of Germany as a peaceful, prosperous and stable democracy, at the heart of Europe politically and economically as well as geographically. But for much of its modern history the picture was very different. A comparative latecomer to statehood, in the 170 years of its existence as a nation-state Germany experienced a dramatic transformation from a maverick to a model state which took in war, dictatorship, occupation and division, as well as rapid industrial development (twice), a dynamic civil society and intense cultural and intellectual experimentation.

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Full information about this module-- including the video lectures and seminar readings-- can be found on the module website.

Please click on the link:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi2c9/

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This 30 CATS final-year undergraduate advanced option deals with one of the most significant episodes in world history: the French Revolution. Promethean and tragic, it has inspired and haunted imaginations throughout the modern era. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times', wrote Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, and, indeed, historians still argue over its paradoxical legacies. For while it inaugurated human rights, universal manhood suffrage and civil equality, it also unleashed terror, authoritarianism and empire. The French Revolution is especially challenging to study since it bequeathed the very terms we use to analyse it. Debates about liberal and social forms of democracy, the viability or dangers of Enlightenment ideals, and the necessity or gratuitousness of violence to bring about democracy all grew out of the French Revolution itself. To study the French Revolution is to put our own conceptual categories and values into question.

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